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The Holy Grail of Social Media for Mobile App Marketing Strategy

The mobile app space is becoming an increasingly crowded and fiercely competitive space. Very often both developers and marketers find it more difficult to make the app stand out from nearly hundreds and thousands of other apps available for consumers to choose from. While developers have the option of using paid advertising or cross promotional tools to increase demand for their apps, significant financial resources act as a deterrent.

In such case, social media levels the playing field to some extent. Social media offers not just cost-effective ways to generate buzz for apps, but also lets users frequently discover apps. However, you need to leverage social media in the right manner. By effectively utilizing social media, you can build an audience, drive demands for your apps, and ultimately increase downloads to the point of putting largest mobile advertising campaign to shame.

How app developers and marketers can effectively use social media to promote apps?

Make it personal: Apprehensions and inhibitions about managing Facebook or Twitter is relatively high among developers. After all there is no formal training. Some developers are even skeptical about their communications and writing skills. But app marketing is more about following your instincts and being yourself, rather than trying to blindly emulate people bigger than you. Sometimes lack of formal marketing experience can turn out to be a blessing in disguise and help you being yourself. It is important to be yourself and give your app a voice. Be passionate about your app, interact with your followers and always respond to their feedback.

Value based and user generated content: Social media is not just about bombarding users with a sales pitch, but connecting with audience. Remember, people follow you on Twitter or like your Facebook page because they are interested in what your app offers and represents. Abandon sell, sell, and only hard sell approach all the time. Instead, focus on content that helps your target audience, solves problems, and educates users. Tips and tricks, how to articles, informative articles about your app’s working, and anything else that might trigger interest. You can also encourage users to post their own videos, reviews, comments and other relevant content.

Don’t shy away from users: If your audience trusts your judgment, it is your responsibility to guide them. There are chances that your followers respect your judgment and want to be part of your app revolution. So don’t shy away from asking them to take action. It could be asking your followers to retweet, like a post, share post, or simply asking fans to provide feedback on your app. You would be surprised with results.

Use tools wisely: While social media is all about adopting a personalized approach and lending a voice to your app, you need to spend your time in a prudent manner. Don’t ignore social media management tools that help you automate and schedule your social media activity. You can post great ideas and space them out in social media tools so they publish as per your schedule. Remember, mobile app marketing is not just about working hard, rather working smart. Learn how to leverage top social media sites to maximize app downloads and generate both brand awareness.

FacebookFacebook comes across as a must-have option for mobile app developers looking to promote their creation. But before you take a plunge, it is important to chart out your goals. What do you want from Facebook? More likes, more downloads, or user engagement? It is important that you select your main objective to determine metrics.

Call-to-action

Strategically include call to action to improve the amount of feedback you receive and increase exposure your app gets. Strong call-to-action encourages users to take desired action.

Understand your audience

Fully capitalize on targeting options. Facebook has tons of targeting options for paid ads. It allows you to target specific audience like never before. You can target audience by location, age, gender, work, relation status, education and much more.

Create content that strikes a chord

Facebook ranks stories with loads of likes, comments and shares near the top, the order is largely chronological. It is important to publish content that users consider valuable and strikes a chord with audience, not just mere gimmick.

TwitterWith 400,000+ million tweets from Twitterati each day, Twitter can come to the rescue of app marketer looking to build audience. The Blue bird just won’t let you down. Majority of Twitter users are on mobile and far more active than desktop-using counterparts.

Make retweets effortless

Give people enough room to retweet your content and add their input as well. Things tend to get tricky due to the character limit. Keep content as brief as possible and use a link shortner if needed. You can consider Twitter handle that epitomizes your brand. Significantly drive user engagement by creating Tweets that include rich media and strong call to actions. By merely including the words “Please retweet,” the likelihood of being retweeted increases dramatically

Twitter for big events

Twitter users are more likely to engage even while watching a movie or TV. Marketers can create a hashtag to generate a buzz around mobile app or participate with an established hashtag that’s already popular. Always look for innovative ways to connect your app with a popular event.

Don’t go overboard with hashtag

Hashtag is a grossly misused concept. Very often marketers go overboard with keywords by stuffing hashtags to Tweet. Excessive use of hashtags often annoys target audience and tends to alienate them. It is best to select 1-3 hashtags per message. Relevancy is the prime factor in determining the ability to reach your audience.

InstagramVisual marketing is a trend for 2014. The growing popularity of Instagram provides a strong testimony for the fact that images strike a chord with users and resonate across cultural barriers. It is important that mobile app marketers leverage the power of visual marketing in its entirety to increase app downloads.

Go Hashtaging and sharing photos

Sharing beautiful photos and screenshots to develop an app name and reputation is great opportunity for successful visual marketing strategy on Instagram. You can effectively use hashtags to share photos of your brands to get them noticed. App marketers can create a meaningful context for their fans by creating their own hashtags and driving visual campaigns. But always remember, razor sharp and high-quality images are important for success on Instagram.

Get professional touch for videos

Videos can turn out to be a daunting task especially because smartphones are yet to be truly optimized for video. So make sure that you follow best practices for video production. Hastily rolled out videos will just not work wonders.

RedditThere is a lot of hullabaloo about Twitter, Facebook, Instagram and such other sites. In the mad rush to capitalize on these sites, app marketers often undermine the importance of social networking site like Reddit. If used in a correct manner, Reddit can increase awareness for your app and swing things in your favor. Beware, blatant vote-buying strategies and excessive promotion have been rebuked, marked as spammers and openly rejected by the Reddit community. This makes app marketing on Reddit all the more challenging.

Dos and Don’ts on Reddit

Trying to simply promote a product without actually adding real value to the community is a big NO. Instead, provide content to redditors under relevant subreddits. In the process, you need to actually help, entertain, or teach people cool new things about the world. Always keep in mind Reddit turns out to be an extremely effective feasible option to give impetus to your short-term app marketing goals, ultimately aiding your long-term goals. When done correctly, you can expect a huge increase in traffic or downloads in a matter of few hours.

ConclusionWhile there are many social media channels and tools that help app marketers to take mobile app to the next level. If you follow these simple tips, you’ll be well on your way to increasing downloads and leads.